Hydroxychloroquine for Cancer treatment?

[Sue (Ayt)]

Since hydroxychloroquine has been such a topic for 2020, it has led to all of us doing many searches. I especially loved how Trump dropped hints early on about it.

I ran into the substance early on when I first heard about a potential pandemic coming that was a coronavirus like SARS and MERS, so I searched those two to see what, if anything, they had come across for potential treatment. There were several studies showing that HCQ was proving to be effective.

Surprisingly though, I also came across a couple of other intriguing search results, that demonstrated it's potential as a cancer treatment, too.

Malaria drugs could help to combat cancer

Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are drugs that are used to treat malaria, but a new review suggests that they may have another purpose: treating cancer.

The research — which reviewed more than 190 studies investigating how chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) affect cancer cells — describes how the malaria drugs may increase tumor sensitivity to existing cancer treatments.

Based on their findings, first study author Ciska Verbaanderd, from the University of Leuven in Belgium, and her colleagues say that the drugs “deserve further clinical investigations in several cancer types.”

The review was recently published in the journal ecancermedicalscience.

While the United States has seen a fall in cancer death rates in recent years, the disease remains a significant burden on public health. Last year, there were more than 1.6 million new cancer cases diagnosed in the U.S. and more than 595,000 cancer deaths.

Given that cancer is increasingly becoming resistant to existing therapies, there is a desperate need to uncover new ways to fight the disease.

Verbaanderd and colleagues believe that the drugs CQ and HCQ could help in this fight.

CQ and HCQ as cancer therapies
CQ and HCQ are medications used to prevent and treat malaria. They may also be used in the treatment of lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. A wealth of research, however, has suggested that these drugs may also have anti-cancer properties.

For their review, Verbaanderd and colleagues analyzed the results of more than 190 animal and human studies that assessed the effects of CQ and HCQ on different types of cancer.

According to the researchers, the aim of their review was “to inform further research and trials on repurposing CQ and HCQ as anti-cancer agents.”

The team uncovered evidence to suggest that CQ and HCQ could be effective for the treatment of a number of cancers, including glioblastoma — which is a deadly brain cancer — lung cancer, and pancreatic cancer.

“CQ and HCQ have been studied in multiple preclinical cancer models,” write the authors, “and have demonstrated activity on several cancer-supporting pathways and in combination with a broad range of other therapies.”

“[…] The majority of these studies have reported an improved therapeutic efficacy as compared with monotherapy with existing anti-cancer drugs,” they add.

The review also indicates that both drugs are “safe and tolerable” as an anti-cancer therapy, though current evidence suggests that HCQ might pose fewer side effects.

How can CQ and HCQ fight cancer?
According to the team, their review highlights a number of mechanisms by which CQ and HCQ could help to treat cancer.

Firstly, there is evidence to suggest that the drugs can inhibit autophagy, which is the process whereby cells devour their own damaged or unnecessary components.

“Autophagic properties such as nutrient recycling can support cancer cell survival,” the authors note. “Moreover, key regulators of cell growth can be degraded and the DNA damage response can be suppressed through increased autophagy.”

“Therefore, inhibition of autophagy can be an interesting anti-cancer strategy when cancer cells start depending on autophagy for survival.”

The review also revealed that CQ and HCQ can block the CXCL12/CXCR4 signaling pathway, which previous research has associated with cancer progression.

Additionally, there is evidence that CQ can stabilize a protein called p53, which is a known tumor suppressor, and it may also help to normalize blood vessel dysfunction in tumors.

“The benefits of vessel normalization include a decrease in tumor hypoxia, reduced cancer cell intravasation and metastasis, and an increase in chemotherapeutic drug delivery and response,” the authors explain.

Drugs could offer ‘significant clinical benefit’
Overall, Verbaanderd and colleagues believe that their study has highlighted the potential benefits of CQ and HCQ as a cancer treatment, as well as the mechanisms behind their anti-cancer properties.

“The results from the review lead us to believe that these antimalarial drugs could offer significant clinical benefit for certain cancer patients, especially in combination with standard anti-cancer treatments. This should be confirmed by additional clinical results.”
Ciska Verbaanderd

The team notes that there are 30 clinical trials currently investigating the effects of CQ and HCQ against various cancer types.

Based on their review, the researchers conclude that these trials should focus on the efficacy of these medications, as well as the best doses and methods of administration.

Written by Honor Whiteman on November 24, 2017 — Fact checked by Jasmin Collier

Source Article

Another "clue" I found is that clinical cancer trials are currently being run for hydroxychloroquine by the National Cancer Institute
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/...oxychloroquine

[Sue (Ayt)]

When I did a search, I found quite a few legitimate research papers exploring Hydroxychloroquine as a cancer treatment, well before covid.

The research appears quite promising, but I would guess this topic scares the heck out of big pharma and the medical machine. I mean, viral infections and cancer are HUGE mainstays of the industry. And good old chloroquine is out of patent and cheap, I believe.

Below is an article from 2012. And I have posted a few more links below this article, but there are a lot more to be found! Surprisingly, I also found a few studies on the treatment of Congestive Heart Failure with Hydroxychloroquine that also looked intriguing.

It's starting to sound like an all-round miracle substance...
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Researches Say Hydroxychloroquine Can Help Treat Cancer

MARCH 14, 2012 BY MALARIA.COM

Researchers say a drug commonly used to treat malaria and rheumatoid arthritis has also proved effective in treating some aggressive cancers. When scientists administered hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, together with known cancer drugs, they found it stopped the growth of cancerous tumors in two-thirds of the patients.

Scientists know that human cancer cells grow by getting energy from adjacent tumors, where cells have begun to self-destruct.

The spread of cancer is accelerated by the death of these cells.

“This process called autophagy, which literally means to self-eat, is present in all cells,” said Dr. Ravi Amaravadi. “But what we are finding in our research is that cancer cells have a very high level of autophagy even before any treatment, and so they are poised to take on the damage from existing cancer therapies and simply break down the damaged parts to fuel further growth.”

Dr. Ravi Amaravadi spoke to us via Skype. He is a cancer specialist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. His group treated patients by combining conventional cancer medications with the anti-malarial drug, hydroxychloroquine. The compound is known to inhibit autophagy and researchers hoped it could stop cancer cells from growing.

In clinical trials, scientists found that hydroxychloroquine paired poorly with some cancer drugs. But it worked well with others, such as Temsirolimus, in helping to halt tumor growth – a so-called “stable disease” rate – in patients with melanoma, an aggressive skin cancer.

“And when Temsirolimus [a cancer drug] was tested in melanoma, it had zero percent stable disease rate,” said Amaravadi. “And when we combined with hydroxychloroquine malaria drug, the stable disease rate went up to 76 percent so that’s a very big difference.”

Researchers used a high dose of hydroxychloroquine to block autophagy, much higher than what’s normally used to treat rheumatoid arthritis or malaria. The dosage has not yet proved harmful.

Dr. Davide Ruggero at the University of California, San Francisco, is also studying the growth of cancer cells. He says the results of the research with hydroxychloriquine are promising.

“This is a great discovery because we know that the compounds are not toxic – have already been used,” said Ruggero.

But Dr. Amaravadi warns that oncologists should not use the anti-malaria drug outside of clinical settings. He says hydroxychloroquine has severe side effects when combined with some cancer drugs. So the knowledge of which compounds work well together is critical.
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Here are some more links:
Chloroquine & Hydroxychloroquine: supporting chemo effectiveness and more (from 2015)

Prostate Cancer (from 2017 Journal of Clinical Oncology)

Repurposing Drugs in Oncology (ReDO)—chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as anti-cancer agents